Olympic silver medalist Tai Tzu-ying (???) punched her ticket to the finals of the women's singles at the BWF World Championships in southern Spain after edging world No. 9 He Bingjiao (???) of China on Saturday.
The top-seeded Tai, ranked No. 1 in the world, outlasted the eighth-seeded He 21-17, 13-21, 21-14 in a semifinal match that lasted 57 minutes, leaving her one match away from her first world title.
In her six previous World Championships appearances, she had never made it further than the quarterfinals, losing in that round five times in a row, including to He in 2018.
The 27-year-old Taiwanese had also never gotten further than the round of 16 at an Olympics before winning silver in Tokyo earlier this year.
She will play second seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, who edged No. 46 Zhang Yiman of China 21-19, 21-19, for the world title on Sunday.
In Saturday's semifinal, Tai improved her career record against He to 9-2, but she was challenged more than she had been in her previous matches at the World Championships, her first tournament since winning silver at the Tokyo Olympics in late July.
Tai scored the first five points of the opening game but He responded with eight straight points of her own, and despite some clinical displays by Tai, He remained narrowly ahead at the game's midpoint, 11-10.
The world No. 1 rallied after the short break, however, to take a 15-12 lead and never looked back.
He raised the bar in the second game, launching a series of laser-like smashes and retrieving everything Tai threw at her, while also taking advantage of several unforced errors by Tai, to win the second game comfortably.
The rubber game remained tight at the start, with He gaining a 6-5 lead. But Tai ran off the next eight points, including a few glorious shots that wrongfooted He, to go up 13-6, and the Chinese veteran never got closer than three points after that.
Tai's campaign in Huelva opened with a 21-10, 21-14 victory over world No. 27 Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia after having received a bye in the first round.
She then defeated world No. 21 Kristy Gilmour of Scotland 21-10, 19-21, 21-11 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals before outmaneuvering defending champion Pusarla V. Sindhu of India 21-17, 21-13 to advance to the semifinals.
A victory at the World Championships would culminate an excellent year for Tai. Beyond her Olympic silver medal, she also powered her way into the finals of three tournaments in Bangkok in January 2021, before clinching the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2020.
She also won the BWF Female Player of the Year award this month in recognition of her achievements in 2020 and 2021.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel